As we make our way through Q1 of 2019, let's look back on 2018 and analyze how exit activity for insurance technology (insurtech) compares to previous years. The graphic below shows total annual insurtech exit events over time.

As the graphic demonstrates, 2018 saw a drop in insurtech exit activity compared to the previous year. The 22 exit events in 2018 represent a 44% decrease from the 39 exit events in 2017, which was the highest year on record for exit activity. However, insurtech exits are still on a general upward trend, with a 5-year CAGR of 22% from 2013 to 2018.

The insurance technology (insurtech) industry has seen $27B in total all time funding. Let's analyze the investors making bets into insurtech and identify the most active firms.

The graphic below shows insurtech investors based on their number of investments into the sector. If an investor participates in two investment rounds in the same company (such as a Series A and Series B), that would qualify as two investments for this graphic.

As the graphic demonstrates, 500 Startups has made the most bets in the insurtech sector with 39 investments. Plug and Play follows in second place with 27 investments. Examples of companies 500 Startups invested in include Kin Insurance, Indio Technologies, Embroker, and Jones. Let's see which investors make their way onto this list in 2019!

Now that 2018 is complete, let’s examine how funding in insurance technology (insurtech) compares to previous years. The graphic below shows the total annual insurtech funding amounts over time.

As the graphic demonstrates, insurtech funding in 2018 was around the $3.8B mark. It represents a meager 2% increase from the previous year’s funding. Some of the largest funding events in 2018 include a $375M Corporate round for Oscar Health, a $300M Series B for Devoted Health, a $200M Series F for Policybazaar, and a $200M Series C for Bright Health. Nonetheless, insurtech funding grew at a CAGR of 18% from 2013 to 2018. We’re now eager to see if its funding can break away from its relatively steady state and into a growth phase again!

The insurance technology sector has seen stable funding in recent years. This blog post examines the different components of the insurtech sector and how they make up this startup ecosystem. We will illustrate what the categories of innovation are and which categories have the most companies. We will also compare the categories in terms of their funding and maturity.

Insurance Marketplace Is the Largest Insurance Technology Category

Let’s start off by looking at the Sector Map. We have classified 1519 insurance technology startups into 14 categories that have raised $25 billion. The Sector Map highlights the number of companies in each category. It also shows a random sampling of companies in each category.

We see that Insurance Comparison and Marketplace is the largest category with 415 companies. These companies enable consumers to compare different insurance providers or buy insurance of any kind (car to home to health). Some example companies are Goji, Policygenius,...

We’ve previously highlighted that insurtech funding has remained stable in recent years. When we take a closer look at the funding trends per insurtech category, we notice that the Health Insurance category leads in both Q3 and overall funding.

We’ll highlight this observation with some graphics and discussions below.

Our recent insurance technology quarterly highlights provided a state of the sector summary. Now we're performing a deep dive examination of insurtech exits to see how things are shaping up on the M&A and IPO front.

Based on analysis on our insurance technology research platform, we see that exit activity in the first half of 2018 is trending down from the previous two years.

Let’s take a closer look at the number of insurance technology exit events by year.

The above graphic shows 13 exits in the first half of 2018. For the past three years, Q3 and Q4 accounted for 53% of total exit events on average. If that trend holds, 2018 exits will finish the year lower than 2017 and 2016, but higher than 2015. We'll see if the second half of the year changes this trend!

Last quarter we discovered that the insurance technology sector is showing early signs of maturation. This quarter we are delving deeper on our insurtech report and research platform to examine funding by category. From this analysis, we conclude that the Insurance Comparison and Health Insurance categories lead the sector in category funding.

This conclusion comes from three key observations:

Insurance Comparison leads the sector in Q2 funding

Health Insurance dominates all-time insurtech category funding

Insurance Comparison has the highest funding growth percentage

We’ll explain these key observations with some graphics and discussions below.

The insurance technology sector has seen an abundance of activity over the past few years. As we previously analyzed, insurtech funding has shown early signs of maturation and its exit events have seen robust growth.

We will now do a deeper dive of the different components of insurance technology and how they make up this startup ecosystem. We have classified the companies into 14 categories. This blog post will illustrate what these categories are and which categories have the most companies. We will also look at how these categories compare with one another in terms of their funding and maturity.

Insurance Marketplace Is the Largest Insurance Technology Category

Let’s start off by looking at the Sector Map for the insurance technology sector. As of March 2018, we have classified 1503 insurance technology startups into 14 categories that have raised $22 billion. The Sector Map highlights the number of companies in each category. It also shows a random sampling of companies in...

To help set the stage, the graphic below shows insurtech exit activity over time. As you can see, the sector’s exit activity grew significantly over the past few years with a slight drop in 2017 from 2016.

Insurance Backend Leads Insurtech in the Number of Exits

The below graph highlights the number of insurtech exit events by category.

This graph shows that the Insurance Backend category leads the sector with 50 exit events....

Our sector maps are snapshots of emerging technology sectors. They show what the different categories in a sector are and how many startups are within each category. They also present a small sampling of the current startups that are innovating in each category.

The Insurance Technology (insurtech) sector is seeing a lot of activity. How have its funding trends evolved over time? On our insurtech research platform, we have analyzed the data through 2017 and can conclude that the investments in insurtech continue on a healthy trend despite a decline in certain metrics.

We have come to this conclusion from the following three takeaways:

The number of insurtech deals has been growing consistently year over year

The number of insurtech investors participating in the deals has been on an upward trend

Insurtech funding amounts have seen a decline over the last few years

We will illustrate these takeaways with a series of graphics to show the trend of insurtech investments over time.

Annual Insurtech Funding Events Growing Consistently

We will start off by examining the annual number of insurtech startup funding deals, stacked by quarters.

The Insurance Technology sector (insurtech) is one of the hottest technology sectors and has seen funding and exit momentum over the past few years. Yet what are the different components of insurtech and how do they make up this startup ecosystem? On our insurtech research platform, we have classified the companies in the sector into functional categories. This blog post examines these categories and how they compare with one another through a series of graphics.

Insurance Comparison/Marketplace Is the Largest Insurtech Category

Let’s start off by looking at the Logo Map for the Insurance Technology sector. As of January 2018, we have classified 1,422 insurtech startups into 14 categories which collectively raised $19 billion in funding. The Logo Map highlights the number of companies in each category and a random sampling of these companies.

We can see from the Logo Map above that Insurance Comparison/Marketplace is the largest insurtech category with 406 companies. This...

Insurance Technology has become one of the hottest sectors in recent years, with a plethora of companies entering the space. How does its overall exit activity trend over time? On our insurtech research platform, we have analyzed the data through 2017 and can conclude that insurtech exit activity continues to be on a healthy upward trend.

This observation was derived from two takeaways:

Insurtech exit events are on a general upward trend at the annual level

We’ll illustrate these takeaways with two graphics that show insurtech exit activity trends over time.

Insurtech Exit Events On General Upward Trend Annually

We’ll start off by examining the insurtech exit events from 2011 to 2017. Exit events include both acquisitions and IPOs. The below graph highlights the number of insurtech exit events by year stacked by quarters.

Here is our Q3 2017 summary report on the Insurance Technology startup sector. The following report includes a startup landscape overview, graphical trends with insights, and recent funding and exit events.

We are currently tracking 1450 Insurance Technology companies in 14 categories across 61 countries, with a total of $19.5 Billion in funding. Click here to learn more about the full Insurance Technology market report.